He told me very clearly: “Give up. Without travel, there can be no more travel writing. And no one wants to read about trips that happened years ago. This is over. Pack up. Go home. Travel writing is dead.”
We begged to differ. We put the call out to our community. And you delivered. Thanks to you, we kept going. And our readership, in fact, grew faster than ever.
When we couldn’t go outside, we went inside, finding new meaning in past experiences. When we couldn’t explore far away, we explored closer to home. When travel was harder and scarier than ever before, we wrote about that as its own kind of experience.
Shortly after March 2020 (a date that still gives us the shivers) we launched the Intrepid Times Private Writers Club. The idea was to help aspiring writers and travel writers find their voice, gain confidence, and navigate the complex world of getting their writing published.
The group took off. Even with all the uncertainty in the world. Even with most of us not traveling. Writers came together, despite it all, to learn how to capture the meaning and significance of their travel experiences in a way that others would want to read and share time and time again.
Alongside feedback on their writing, members get a monthly masterclass exploring different travel writing themes and techniques, from writing a compelling introduction to pitching your work to publishers and editors.
This week, we released the 12th monthly masterclass. To celebrate this milestone, we are making a special exception and releasing this masterclass publicly, for the first and only time.
In this conversation, myself and Jennifer Roberts explore pandemic travel writing 12 months on. We discuss how writing has survived, what we expect for the future, and give some examples of the best pieces of travel writing to come out of this experience.
(As I was recording from a new temporary home, please bear with the less-than-idea audio quality at the start. It improves throughout. And if you hear a little pop or crash, that’s me gesturing and whacking my microphone, a habit I’ve been unable to train myself out of so far!).
You can listen here:
Masterclass: Travel Writing, One Year On
[The workbook for this masterclass is for members only and is uploaded in the member’s area].
To get access to the archive of 10 in-depth masterclasses just like this, a new masterclass each month, and in-depth feedback on your own writing, join us in the Writer’s Club >>
Thank you for being with us on this journey, in whatever capacity that has been. Here’s to the next chapter, together!
